Special education (SPED) learners at the Bacolod City SPED Center and Bacolod City National High School SPED Class in Negros Occidental province will be the first to use a Moodle application developed by ChildFund Philippines and its partners CHILDInitiative and DepEd Bacolod City Division for Project ACHIEVE. This app has just been pilot tested and the first two skills packages are now being rolled out – the Functional Academics package for elementary students and the Life Skills package for those in high school.
The SPED teachers in this Center develop learning activities that aim to develop the competencies and skills required of the students in a given grade level. These outputs undergo quality assurance before being uploaded to the server of the Moodle application. With the help of their teachers, the learners can then work on the exercises online or download the modules to their smart phones or tablets.
Visually impaired learners can access the interactive content and hear audio prompts using the TalkBack feature of Android devices. On the other hand, hearing-impaired students can answer the exercises directly in the app even without the use of sign language, unless they need further guidance or explanation from their teachers or parents. This app can also be used by other SPED learners, such as those with intellectual disabilities or developmental delays, as well as non-SPED learners, because the skills and competencies it develops are applicable to all school-age children.
The learning activities in this app – for example, matching or fill-in-the-blanks exercises – are fully interactive. Thus, the learners find them fun and interesting. “It’s like playing a game on the phone or tablet. I enjoy it and I’m happy when I’m answering the exercises. It’s easy for me to learn and it’s really helpful in my studies!” said Jane Rose Dolor, a Grade 4 student with a hearing impairment, through her interpreter. Ms. Donna Pidut, Bacolod City SPED Center’s Principal agrees. “They really enjoy and learn more quickly if the exercises are interactive, and it should be that way! For instance, the hearing impaired are really visual learners and have difficulty reading too much text. They respond better to materials that have visual representation.” It also helps that most of these students are tech-savvy and grew up with smart phones, tablets, and social media.
The project is not without its challenges, though. Internet connectivity is often slow or unstable, the specifications of the gadgets that the learners use are sometimes incompatible with the requirements of the app, and purchasing prepaid load for the devices is an additional expense for students’ families. These make it difficult for the students to access the materials online or download them to their devices, thus hindering their progress. The teachers work around this by using the available compatible devices in school, holding their online class activities when and where the Wi-Fi signal is strong, and spreading them out throughout the day to avoid overloading the network.
It’s still early days, but the teachers and administrators involved in this project are determined to overcome these challenges and deliver a learning tool that can be used by all SPED students in the long term. Dr. Ellen dela Cruz, Education Program Supervisor at the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Learning Resource Management Section, shared her vision for this project. “If Project ACHIEVE eventually has its own website, this will be most beneficial to SPED learners and their teachers. The teachers can create more interactive learning activities for their students and it will be easier for them to have access to all the learning resources at any time. This website can also have a platform for announcements where Project ACHIEVE can post future initiatives or gather more stakeholders.
Moreover, since it will be web-based, the materials that our teachers prepared can be utilized by all SPED learners, not just those who are here in Bacolod City.” Dr. dela Cruz proudly shared that the project has even caught the attention of DepEd’s Central Office. “They expressed their fervent wish to be involved in Project ACHIEVE. They also want to go digital for their SPED projects but don’t know where to start. So, this proposed website can help us consolidate our efforts and deliver quality learning materials to all SPED students in the Philippines.”
